Christianaudio.com provides a free book download per month. They are usually pretty good. Check them out and grow your walk!

Since my church does not have a paid videographer or tech person, I’m the one who edits almost all of my ministry videos and children’s worship slideshows. I’m often looking for interesting sound effects to round off the presentation. I have found a great site for free sound effects called Partners In Rhyme. You can purchase a good deal of effects, but they offer a large number of free ones. You can access all of these off of the main page.

If you are looking for a simple and free sound effects player that will run effects directly from your computer to your soundboard, then V-Sampler Basic from Kidzturn Labs (go to bottom of page) is what you need. You get a limited 20 banks of effects, but it is a nice basic program which should meet most ministry needs.

Did you know that Eleven 72, a worship media company, offers a free monthly download? It is always some sort of video or background they have produced. I’m not extremely familiar with the company so I will not commentate elaborately.

This month, they are giving away a nice video full of Scritpture that is all about Jesus called “I Am.” It would be good to show as kids are coming in to a worship service, but at over five minutes is too lengthy (in my opinion) to be used as a teaching resource.

Know any other places to get free media? Let the CM world know in the comment box below!

If you have not stumbled upon Max 7 yet, you are really missing out. They have forms, curriculum, audio and videos. You must take a look at the video: Aim Lower. If your pastor would let you show it in “Big Church” during recruitment time, you should take him up on it!

In the administrative-heavy world of Children’s Ministry, the files on your computer are precious. What would you do if you lost forever some of these valuable documents that you use year after year:

• Volunteer applications
• Pictures from previous ministries
• Parent and child letters
• Fall festival to-do lists

I would dare say that many of us are ministering daily with all of this information and more stored on one computer. How many times have you heard of a friend moaning of their computer crashing? What did you say? It won’t happen to you? That’s what your friend said! I decided several years ago, as I was accumulating these documents that I would ensure they were backed up on our church server.

That’s when I discovered Allway Sync. It is a free synchronization program that is extremely versatile. You can simply back up one folder on your computer to your church’s server, a jump drive or an external hard disk or you can go as extreme as creating automatic daily syncs or excluding certain types of files or folders.

I back up all of my children’s ministry files here at church and I back up my school files between my church laptop and desktop at home as well. This program has worked flawlessly since I installed it over 2 years ago. The license allows free use for any personal or non-profit situation and their End User License Agreement leaves the door open for church/non-profit organization use. Do don’t lose those files!

Today’s post comes from a post by Tony Kumner at Ministry To Children.

Tony came across some great free MP3 Bible stories told by a grandmother who wanted to record the Bible for her grandchildren. You can check out Tony’s post here. From his post you can read his take on the MP3’s as well as follow the link to download them.

I’ve listened to a few of them and they are pretty cool. They would be great for car rides. I plan on putting them on a CD and letting my preschool daughters listen to them for quiet times and on trips. There are no copyright issues here, you are free to copy and distribute to parents and kids as you would like.

My friends, today, you get the two for one deal. I was planning on posting about KidzMatter’s free monthly download, but then the KidzMatter founder, Ryan Frank, cued me in on something else. Ryan recently began publishing a magazine called K!. It is a fantastic magazine, that’s why I am a subscriber. KidzMatter would like for you to have a free copy of their magazine. All you need to do is contact them by calling their office (Toll Free – 877.568.2437), let them know you’d like a free one to preview, then they’ll send you one. It’s that easy.

Of course, KidzMatter, offers a great deal of excellent resources. You can purchase  worship videos by Uncle Charlie, short films by Timbuktoons and KidzMatter original material like powerpoint games and “Spud” episodes. Ryan is a starving Children’s Pastor with a hungry child, you should definitely support him!

So let’s recap:

1. Check out the KidzMatter website each month for a free download. This month’s is a cool video about Adam and Eve called “Baby Pops.”
2. Call the KidzMatter office and get your totally free copy of the K! Magazine. It is the final step to you becoming the best Children’s Pastor in your church!